i was learning about waves. what comes in must go out, and things get carried in both directions.

like breath, the ocean can hold contradictory movement.

if you move towards a wave, you can ride it out, without giving up much of your starting position or strength. if you try to stand still, or run away, it knocks you over.

this makes me think of conflict resolution, and action. moving towards our opposition allows us to be resilient and hold our truth. staying where we are, or running away, our opposition will knock us flat.

depth is relative. at the peak of the wave it can seem you are very deep, and then when it pulls back to the ocean you realize you are still on shallow ground. to go deep you have to actually swim away from the shore, and any perceived safety…when you can’t feel the floor anymore, you begin to experience what depth is.

getting caught in an idea of change does not actually transform you – it can pass over you like a wave and you are still on shallow ground. the fear you feel when the floor drops out can be a good thing – even if you are floating, flying on the surface, you are still in deeper water, where a greater volume is moving. your insignificance can liberate you into feeling how to move, and how to be.

coming out of the ocean can be harder than going in – the waves look like they are inward focused and reaching, but the pull to that greater sea is so much stronger.

what we know, how we are raised to experience the world, pulls us back all the time to old ways. still we reach reach reach – and as we ascend a shore that is new there is less and less force, until only the most slender sliver of water coasts over the sand. but even that sliver can bring back the matter of sand, blur the edge between land and water, and there is no separating the two forms at that point.

that is where i want to always reside in the human experience, on those boundaries where two things exist, separate but of each other – contradictions, opposites.

all that to say – i really love the ocean.

i have notes from all the sessions here on ending poverty/economic justice – fascinating conversations. but i’ll save it for next blog. i still have salt and sand all over me.